Is your dog indoor/outdoor/both dog?

SorrentoWife · by **SorrentoWife** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 1:46 pm

Buddy is a total indoor dog. Sleeps in the kitchen and spends the day snoozing on the couch when I'm at work. Don't mind this as in fairness to him he doesn't touch anything belonging to us, have cushions on the couch etc and he won't chew them. He never goes to toilet inside either, will always wait for us to let him out.

Trying to get him used to being outside more but taking a while! He much prefers being inside! We got a dog run at the end of the garden (fenced off the bottom part of it for him). He has a fairly big area there and have his kennel down there and some toys but he hates it. He'll go in no bother but getting him to stay is a problem. He bit through the wire and managed to make a hole big enough to get out. When he goes down there to go to the toilet sometimes the gate closes behind him but doesn't lock but he figured out if he launches himself on the gate it will go forward a bit and then bounce back and he can stick his nose in when it bounces back and open it from there! So when its locked he still tries to open it by jumping at it!

Tried to put him in for 10 mins and try to build up the time from there. Gave him a kong to keep him busy but he's still not feeling the love for the run at all! Any suggestions?

babydust2012 · by **babydust2012** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 1:53 pm

Our dog stays out for the most of the day when its not winter, he loves being out in the garden especially days like today when the sun is shining and he follows the sun all the way down the garden with his blanky!!!! We bring him inside in the evenings as he loves his creature comforts!!! He'll sit on the patio door if he wants to go out to do his business, we are soo lucky with him even though we rescued him about 7 years ago and had very bad habbits he seems to have settled down nicely to his routine over the years!!

I think its important if he's not used to being outside or dislikes it, is to start off by letting him outside when your in the garden hanging out washing etc and bring him back in when your coming in so he knows he's not being "abandoned" outside IYKWIM? Once he feels safe being outside when you're there, you can try leaving him outside for small amounts of time starting maybe with 15 minutes and then going out to play with him or bringing him in and just building up on that. Most dogs love being outside and enjoy rooting around the garden. Our fella is so funny cos he loves "playing" with bugs and insects, its hilarious to look out and see him "snuggling" the grass because ALWAYS on closer inspection he's found a worm or something and is just messing about!!! The weather is perfect now for starting to wean him outside. Good luck.

morningsun · by **morningsun** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 1:58 pm

Our dog is outside all day while we are at work and inside while we are at home. She isn’t a fan of being outside while we are there (say if we were washing the floors or something and we put her out) but she does choose to go outside sometimes especially if it is sunny.

She seems happy in the garden while we are at work and will be snoozing in the sun or in her kennel when we get home but she will still try to get out if she can!!! For example during the winter there was a bad wind and it blew off one of the panels in the back garden so OH came home from work and she was sitting on the mat on the front door :eek

we were chatting to the neighbours and they said she just sat there for the couple of hours, didn’t go anywhere else. So there just seems to be a thing in them to want to try to escape even though she didn’t actually do anything!

Sorry that was a ramble with no good advice but maybe start putting him in the run for short times when he is knackered after a big long walk and give him some high value treats while he is out there? I know you said before he isn’t really into his food so try it with something he really likes.

SorrentoWife · by **SorrentoWife** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 2:05 pm

I'm off work for this week and next on Easter hols so am in sitting room now and have left kitchen and patio doors open so he can go in and out to the garden as he pleases. He has a vet bed in his kennel that we took out and brought inside the past few weeks and got him sleeping on it so his smell was on it. He doesn't like his kennel so have put it in the sun on the patio now so he can lie on it if he wants out there.

Hopefully the weather will hold up and I can keep doing this. Will leave some treats in his run for him too tomorrow before he goes out so when he runs in there he gets something yummy and build up a positive association with it that way gradually.

Morningsun, he is not into the boring old dry nuts but treats he loves! Have a chicken to make for our dinner tonight so will keep some bits for him and put them in run tomorrow. He's out there the past 30 mins not a bother but as soon as I close the door he'll want to come in. Have a feeling in his previous home he was locked away in a room for long periods as at times he hates being alone and can panic.

by **Elizabeth Bennett** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 2:05 pm

Ours is an indoor dog, he eats and sleeps inside but he prefers to be outside most of the time except for when it gets dark. He's very active so likes to be outside to play and explore. We have a doggy door installed so he can go in and out whenever he wants.

SaraD08 · by **SaraD08** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 2:08 pm

my Guy is a bit of both really....

75% of the time he's indoors, he sleeps in the kitchen, is always in where were home and some days during ther week if its raining etc I leave him in all day, so he's on out in the garden 2/3 days per week max, and thats only when we're in work.

Our garden is pretty cocker proof, we're learned the do's and dont's over the years so when he's out most he will do is zzzzz and possibly roll around in most shrubs, other than that he's great.

Dunno how your going to get buddy to stay in his area down the back, as I know if it were my guy he would loose his life and wreck the fence / break the door he's not keen on being confined unless it the whole garden.... so no words of wisdom... sorry :wv

morningsun · by **morningsun** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 2:14 pm

SorrentoWife wrote: Have a feeling in his previous home he was locked away in a room for long periods as at times he hates being alone and can panic.

Poor doggie :o(

It sounds like you are doing the right thing SW in building up the positive association. Hopefully if you persist with treats and short time periods he will get used to it and realise that he isn’t being abandoned or anything. Not sure if you could do this but try giving him the treats through the wire or over the top with the door locked aswell so he doesn’t see the locking of the door as a bad thing.

SaraD08 · by **SaraD08** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 2:18 pm

Ok... so I’ve had an idea, maybe he associates the pen with being locked up and kept away from you guys, and when he’s locked in he’s alone.... ;o(

Sooo what you could try is, when the weather's nice, get a chair outside and put in his pen and read a book in there with him.... so he learns it’s not so lonely and that even his owners go in and its “ok” to be in there with the door locked.

It’s worth try maybe. Just sit in there for a few hours reading etc and he will see he’s not locked away as punishment etc.

Worth a try :thnk

cupcakebabe · by **cupcakebabe** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 2:26 pm

Our retrievers are def indoor dogs. They sleep upstairs with us and are in most days unless its nice outside. Dh is self employed so can let them out as much as they need during the day.

Our male HATES being outside and will whimper at the door until you let him in. We spent a fortune getting a big area out the back done for them and its kinda wasted. Our girl doesn’t mind being outside as long as our male or one of us it with her. She is not keen on being out alone for long. But she will just sit on the door step til you let her in again. She is mad for the bugs as well. Sometimes I feel sorry for them as she paws away at them rolls them over and throws them up. Poor creatures. Our male will stay out in the sun if the door is open but once you close the door he wants in straight away even if he was happy out ten seconds before that.

Babydust our male used to have a blanky as well but we had to take it off him. In the end he was chewing holes in it and actually swallowing the blanky. I felt so bad for him cause he really missed it. He was the same used to follow the sun around the garden with his blanky. Used to laugh so hard at him when it was on the washing line. He would never touch any clothes of ours on the clothes line but when I would wash his blanky and hang it on the line he used to try to jump up and pull it off.

cupcakebabe · by **cupcakebabe** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 2:28 pm

Our retrievers are def indoor dogs. They sleep upstairs with us and are in most days unless its nice outside. Dh is self employed so can let them out as much as they need during the day.

Our male HATES being outside and will whimper at the door until you let him in. We spent a fortune getting a big area out the back done for them and its kinda wasted. Our girl doesn’t mind being outside as long as our male or one of us it with her. She is not keen on being out alone for long. But she will just sit on the door step til you let her in again. She is mad for the bugs as well. Sometimes I feel sorry for them as she paws away at them rolls them over and throws them up. Poor creatures. Our male will stay out in the sun if the door is open but once you close the door he wants in straight away even if he was happy out ten seconds before that.

Babydust our male used to have a blanky as well but we had to take it off him. In the end he was chewing holes in it and actually swallowing the blanky. I felt so bad for him cause he really missed it. He was the same used to follow the sun around the garden with his blanky. Used to laugh so hard at him when it was on the washing line. He would never touch any clothes of ours on the clothes line but when I would wash his blanky and hang it on the line he used to try to jump up and pull it off.

SorrentoWife · by **SorrentoWife** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 3:08 pm

Glad he's not only dog who likes being inside! He's out in the garden now not a bother on him. Has found the sunniest spot and lying stretched out in it. Had to go to shop so left him out there and he was fine. Crept in and went upstairs and looked out window to see where he was and he was in same spot. Think its a matter of building up the time.

SaraD08 wrote:Dunno how your going to get buddy to stay in his area down the back, as I know if it were my guy he would loose his life and wreck the fence / break the door he's not keen on being confined unless it the whole garden.... so no words of wisdom... sorry

He always runs in there first when he goes into garden so hoping he'll learn to like it. More of a case of wanting to be inside more than anything. He loves the couch in the kitchen as the sun comes in to the sitting area and he lies down on the comfy couch in the sun! We had to section off an area as he was destroying the garden. He'd run around on the one track and the more he ran the more he'd get hyper and bark and bark. We got part of the track paved and he doesn't run around like a lunatic as much. From speaking to few people they reckon he saw it as his job to protect garden - good few houses around us have dogs and 1 in particualr has a dog that barks a lot - so Buddy wanted to let them know this is his garden and he is here. When he's in the run he doesn't bark or run around like a madman so working in that respect.

The more time that goes on with him the more we realise how badly he was treated in his old house. He doesn't seem to have been exposed to anything, is nervous of strangers and got no obedience training whatsoever. They obviously saw a cute little cocker puppy, got him and then when he got bigger and was (we reckon) destructive and bold (for want of a better word) due to boredom and lack of stimulation and they got rid of him. O:|

morningsun · by **morningsun** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 3:15 pm

SorrentoWife wrote: is nervous of strangers

It does sound like he wasn’t treated the best but we had our cocker since she was 8 weeks old and she was really well socialised and loved people when she was young, then she went into heat at about 5.5 months old and became really nervous of strangers after this.i am not sure if it because we had to keep her isolated and away from other people and dogs for 3 weeks at a critical time of her development but its very annoying. I have met a few cocker owners who said their dogs were like that aswell so maybe it could be just a breed thing…

SaraD08 · by **SaraD08** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 3:26 pm

The only thing I will say is SW our dog would wreck everything given half the chance... O:|

Over the years we’ve made changes in our garden to stop his “destructive” behaviour and he was subjected to everything. Puppy classes , tons of other dogs etc. Our guy is just a digger and a wrecker.

So we have cobble locking for half the garden, a huge deck, and other areas with pebbles / stones, no grass in sight. Its designed up well and so doesn’t look to cold etc.

Plants we planted are lavender (for some reasons he HATES them), they look fab, we have roses (yes the thorns are a great help), they are growing really well, a few stings from the thorns sorted him out.... we planted lots of other stuff that he refuses to go near, so all in all our garden is eventually taking shape.... however if we planted nice little flowers etc... they wouldn’t last 10 minutes, even now and he’s seven.

I recently put down some lovely solar lights sprinkled around the garden.... sprinkled all right , everyfew nights they move.. and it’s not me moving them....my guy like to “rearrange” the garden his way... :duh:

But once we dog proofed the place he’s been much better :hyper:

SorrentoWife · by **SorrentoWife** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 3:32 pm

He's only nervous of strangers in our house. Anywhere else and he's grand. Not sure why this is and he isn't aggressive or anything with them, just very attention seeking. Part of it could be because he's used to being with us and if other people are here our attention isn't on him. So we 'ignore' him a lot in the evenings now and give him attention when he's being good. When MIL comes down he's really good because he likes her, is used to her being here and knows if he brings his toys to her she'll play with him! He also knows that she's not going to take him anywhere. A lot of the apprehension of strangers is (we think, could be wrong) because he was in in his original house. Then was moved to the girls dads (or thats what we were told) house and then onto us. So he's had a lot of change and maybe he thinks new people coming means he's moving again or something. Was speaking to lady who grooms/ trained/ minds him yesterday and she said he won't have any specific memories of anything bad that happened him but will be nervous of things as when the same thing happened before it was bad so his instinct is not to like it. She said since we got him she sees a massive improvement in him and can't believe how calm he has become and said no matter what other dogs she has there anytime he's there he is so sociable with them and very good for her. Nice to hear that what are doing is working but because we're here everyday we prob don't notice the improvement as much.

SorrentoWife · by **SorrentoWife** » Thu Apr 05, 2022 3:35 pm

SaraD08 wrote:The only thing I will say is SW our dog would wreck everything given half the chance...

Over the years we’ve made changes in our garden to stop his “destructive” behaviour and he was subjected to everything. Puppy classes , tons of other dogs etc. Our guy is just a digger and a wrecker.

So we have cobble locking for half the garden, a huge deck, and other areas with pebbles / stones, no grass in sight. Its designed up well and so doesn’t look to cold etc.

Plants we planted are lavender (for some reasons he HATES them), they look fab, we have roses (yes the thorns are a great help), they are growing really well, a few stings from the thorns sorted him out.... we planted lots of other stuff that he refuses to go near, so all in all our garden is eventually taking shape.... however if we planted nice little flowers etc... they wouldn’t last 10 minutes, even now and he’s seven.

I recently put down some lovely solar lights sprinkled around the garden.... sprinkled all right , everyfew nights they move.. and it’s not me moving them....my guy like to “rearrange” the garden his way...

But once we dog proofed the place he’s been much better

We got rid of the flower beds as he used to decide he didn't want certain plants there and dig them up for us! Had small pots which he'd knock over when he was looking for notice so got big heavy pots now and he can't knock them over. Got a bigger area paved and as I said it has stopped the manic running along the same track. He likes to rearrange things too. If I tidy his toys he'll pull them out and dot them around the place. Same with blankets.

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